Although each crypto is unique, it shares some similarities with its better-known peers — its code is based off the script for litecoin, for example.
Unlike bitcoin, which has set 21 million as the finite amount of the digital currency, dogecoin has 129 billion coins in circulatIon and will continue to make new blocks of coins available to mine each year.
Although cryptos are gaining more acceptance as a currency for purchasing goods, dogecoin doesn’t have much mainstream real-world use.
And its main differentiator — its active online community — is what makes the odd-ball currency so fun.
Billy Markus, an IBM programmer from Portland, Oregon, set to differentiate his crypto from bitcoin, which was steeped in mystery with an anonymous creator and at the time attracted a small, niche group of miners.
But Elon Musk is the loudest and most prominent supporter of dogecoin.
The more-actively traded and more-widely accepted bitcoin is subject to extreme volatility, so dogecoin, too, could crumble without warning.